Esteban Baez
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Fate Shifter podcast. My name is Esteban Baez, and together with Martin Altherr, we will be answering the question, do I need a mentor, a coach, or a therapist? Hi, Martin.
Martin Altherr
Hey Esteban, how are you doing?
Esteban Baez
I'm feeling great, man. I'm really excited about today's topic simply because I have been a student of personal development for a long time and I have been exposed to a lot of coaches and mentors.
And I personally still maybe need some clarification on the concept of mentorship, coaching, and therapy. So I'm really excited about today's topic.
Martin Altherr
Awesome. Because it's really also a question many people have. Often I hear people saying, oh, you are a coach, I don't need a therapist.
Or I hear them saying, oh, you're a mentor, but actually I need a coach. Or there are different, maybe even misleading arguments about who is what and what is who's responsibility to deliver, right?
Esteban Baez
Right, and a lot of people use the word mentor and coach as if it is the same word, right? So they use it if it's the same.
So my question is, what's the difference between a mentor and a coach?
Martin Altherr
Okay, actually, we can take it from my own perspective and own story, because in the very beginning, when I started, I was not so much thinking about becoming a coach and especially not becoming a mentor.
In the beginning, I just said, I want to be a therapist. I want to help people, and I want to help people fast, and I want to help them to transform fast.
I was not aware at that time that a lot of techniques within the self-transformation code, I created that time, there are elements that belong to a coach and there are elements that belong to a therapist.
And the easiest way actually to understand the difference between therapy and coaching is: a therapist must have a medical and psychomedical background. He must be aware of all the psychological challenges people can have, he must know the sicknesses.
And he should actually also know when is the time that really a psychiatrist should take over so that a therapist can help in the field, where is his expertise. But then when it comes to a psychiatrist problem, he can also work together with a psychiatrist.
For example, in the very, very beginning I was actually trained to help people when they were traumatized. So I was of course working as a therapist with traumatized people and also in collaboration with psychotherapists.
So we were working together even when medication came into the game. For example, I'm really not a friend of medication, but sometimes it's better that you can give some medication so that the person is able to take therapy in order to grow.
And then you put the medication away and then comes actually then the next level. And to compare it now with coaching... a coach, actually... you know from the sports a coach is coaching you through a process to reach a specific goal.
Of course, you could say, okay, I have now a trauma and my specific goal is to get out of this trauma or get healed from this trauma. And here is the difference.
You get healed from the trauma. You don't get healed from being slow, you know what I mean? You move slowly with your coach towards being fast. There is a distinction. A coach does really coach you to a specific goal with specific tools to reach that goal.
And when that goal is reached, it's done.
A therapist helps you to heal and to get to the point where you are healed. And then it might turn over into coaching.
If then life strategy situations are coming up after being healed, then the therapist might become a coach if he has the expertise and the qualification to be a coach.
And that would be, let's say, the simplest explanation of what is the difference between a therapist and a coach.
Esteban Baez
Wow. So just to recap a little bit. The therapist can also prescribe treatment in the sense of medication so that the person then can go through the process of therapy.
Because there are times that I guess a condition or a trauma or a situation doesn't allow the person to be able to process or think, right.
So they need to balance themselves through medication.
Martin Altherr
The medication comes from the doctor's side, from the psychiatrist. So when the therapist works together with a psychiatrist, the psychiatrist makes the medical treatment and the therapist makes the therapy with the client.
Esteban Baez
Got you. Okay, so it's like a team effort.
Martin Altherr
Yes, they work together and often, I mean, in that time it happened very often with me that I worked together with psychiatrists.
So we exchanged and had also the health path formed out together and we were discussing constantly and staying in connection so that we could as fast as possible get the medication down so that the client is healed and can go forward then into life coaching.
And there is a distinction when it comes to coaching and strategies, how to live specific situations in life. That is what I often see that many coaches out there are not aware that they are actually overtaking therapeutic jobs without being a therapist, without having the knowledge about it.
And that makes it then so difficult. And on the other side I see so often people, they say I don't want to have a therapist, I want to have a coach because then they don't feel so like sick and I have to heal, you know what I mean?
Then they're looking for a coach, but actually, they need a mixture of both. So they actually should look for somebody who has the ability to deliver both, to deliver the coaching after healing.
So to deliver first the healing and the therapy and then the coaching after the healing.
Esteban Baez
So in reality, it could be that the person might need both. But we need to address the issue. So it depends on the issue.
If there's healing that needs to take place, then therapy could be the way to go. So how does the person know if they need therapy?
Martin Altherr
That's a very good question. And sometimes it is in fact first to figure out in a conversation either with a coach who knows, oh, hey, listen here, you need really this or this method to heal and then he will lead this person to a therapist who delivers a specific method that helps the client, right.
Or on the other side, hey, you don't need therapy. There is everything. Okay? You actually need coaching. And then it depends. If you're at a therapist place who has no idea about coaching, he will lead you to a coach.
And in the best-case scenario, you find somebody who just is able to deliver both. So you come with your challenge, you'd address it, and then you figure out what makes sense. Does it maybe need here some parts of coaching?
Does it here need some parts of therapy? And then the mixture of both makes you complete and leads you to where you actually want to be.
Esteban Baez
Wow, okay. So if I need coaching, that usually has to do with goal setting and getting a goal accomplished that's not necessarily to heal, correct?
Martin Altherr
Correct.
Esteban Baez
Okay, so that's a big difference. Now let's talk about mentorship. Is mentoring and coaching the same thing? Because people use it interchangeably. They use it as if it's the same thing
Martin Altherr
Not at all. Here is the next misunderstanding. But that happens very often that somebody who is a coach and might even be a good coach also says I'm a mentor.
Why? Because somehow they feel like being a mentor sounds a bit different than a coach. Because if you throw a stone somewhere, you only can hit a coach, right?
So nowadays many people are coaching in a certain area and everybody kind of is in the coaching. And then it is like a distinction when you are a mentor.
But a mentor actually is somebody who has already reached this specific area where he is mentoring or she is mentoring, has reached not only just reached it, but lived over a longer span this point in life where your client wants to be.
So, for example, in sports, you can have a coach and a mentor, or you can have a mentor who is able to coach. And when you have a mentor who is able to coach, of course, you have the benefit of both in one person, which is often ideal.
And sometimes it's even important to separate that, to have really the mentor who has, for example, a long career of being, let's say world champion in a specific discipline, boxing or whatever.
Mentoring then somebody and giving this mentoring also to the coach who is coaching, then the client.
Esteban Baez
This is, yeah, we got to stay focused because it almost sounds the same, but it's not okay.
Martin Altherr
I try to help understand it better with boxing.
If you have a boxing mentor, somebody who was, let's say, Tyson, and he is a mentor because he has lived it, he had his huge career as a champion over a long time and even is living now still from that, or was living now still from that.
And now when he is mentoring somebody, he is there for that person and having conversations, having discussions.
Tyson comes as a mentor, mentoring the coach and the client so that the coach can fulfill the input and inspiration the mentor gives.
When you take that now in personal development, then you must have somebody who has mastered different areas of life.
Actually, from my perspective, I have mastered now relationships so much. I live for over ten years with my wife without having one single day, a fight, because we just apply what I have learned over the years and what I have taught to so many people over the years.
And we were in a very short time, in one to three months, we were already at the point we never had any more fights.
We have arguments, that's normal, we have different opinions, but we never have fights.
Through this, I can say: "Yes, relationships I've mastered." Over 70 percent... we had once and survey... over 70 something percent of my clients come back into a fulfilled relationship after being actually at the end of the rope, because I'm mentoring them to their relationship goal, being back together in a fulfilling relationship.
Money-wise, the same story. I have reached a certain level of income and created nine companies, some I crashed at the wall, which brought me a lot of experience. And with all this experience, I can mentor people also money-wise and company-wise.
And when it comes to spiritual consciousness, I'm born with a certain ability, and I have developed that with a lot of mentors and coaches, and therapists to a specific point and live it now, so I can also mentor them in this area.
So I'm actually a mentor who has the ability to coach, who has the ability to give therapy, because I went through all three stages, reached the mentorship position, because I'm living it, owning it, and applying it to my life for years.
And that is what makes the difference between a coach and a mentor. A mentor has reached and experienced.
Esteban Baez
It is very unique in your experience. Right, Martin?
Because it's very rare to see all three in one person. Right?
Martin Altherr
I found some good inner circles that I'm also part of. There are people who were starting as therapists who came to coaching and now, after living it a longer while in their lives, can call themselves also mentors.
So we are like an inner circle of mentors, coaches, and therapists because we can deliver all three levels and help people with them.
And now, just to finalize that with the mentor thing, now you can understand that mentoring describes somebody who has reached it, who lives it already a longer time, and makes more experience in it by living it. That makes this person a mentor.
And here you can make the distinction to the coach. Let's take again the boxing example. When you take Tyson, he has reached it, lived it, and lives it in a longer experience. Right?
A coach must not have necessarily been the world champion because he can coach the trainee to the point where the mentor says he needs to reach.
So a coach must not urgently have reached it, but a mentor urgently must have reached it, lived it, and lived it over a longer time.
Esteban Baez
Got you. So for mentorship, it's a requirement that you have been the thing that you're trying to accomplish.
So you have to have been there. Right?
I guess when you're picking a mentor, you have to have the evidence that they've done it multiple times so they can mentor you.
When choosing a coach, the coach doesn't necessarily have to have had the thing you're after, because I guess the coach provides a different type of relationship that helps you through either inspiration and maybe accountability to reach the goal.
Martin Altherr
Yes, there are specific training tools you apply in order to reach a certain goal. So of course, when it comes to personal development, it becomes again a bit more difficult.
Because I every time say, if you take a coach for personal development, you should choose someone who has already reached what you want. To reach because he knows or she knows all the traps and all the things that are happening on the way, and he or she knows how to get around them. Or how to get through it. Right?
And that comes very close to coaching and mentoring. So then there is already this mixture of coaching and mentoring.
What I see often is that it should actually be for sure coaching if you want to reach something, but for sure also mentoring through somebody who reached it already.
Now, it's just the question, how long has this person reached it already? How often has this person repeated this result? And how possibly often this person can repeat this result?
And that distinguishes again from the coach who has reached it, from the mentor who just can generate it wherever he or she is.
I mean, for example, you can take everything away from me, put me somewhere, give me $1,000 within a year or two or three, and I'm again back in the wealth I have nowadays.
Because I know exactly the function, I know exactly the tools, I know exactly what to apply, and it's going to happen again and again and again. You can take it again away and then we start again from zero and it will happen within a year or two and I'm there again.
And of course, some processes, like when we talk about millions, it can take a bit longer, but you come back into the wealth and into your standards.
You know exactly the methods and the functions, how to get there. And that makes a mentor.
Esteban Baez
So a coach can't necessarily do that. So what can a coach do when like if I want to hire a coach right, and I was thinking about achieving a financial goal, can a coach help me achieve my financial goal?
Martin Altherr
Yes, I guess for sure. Actually, I don't guess, I'm 100% sure.
Let's say somebody in the bank went through a certain career and says I know exactly how to invest and how to do this and that, and that makes this amount of money in this amount of time. And I can coach that to somebody because I know exactly how the structure works.
After living it longer and having it longer, more knowledge takes place, more experience takes place, to do certain things faster, to do certain things differently, and to do especially certain things without spending so much time on it.
Because somebody who reached it the first time still takes quite a lot of time to reach it again when you take everything away. And the more experienced you are, the more time you have lived with it, the faster it happens.
And that has also a bit something to do with how you project your reality and how you project your expectation to your surrounding reality.
Because somebody who is experienced having will expect, having and by expecting, having and being experienced, having, it's self-understanding to have. And this self-understanding is projected in the environment and through this, this person will get way faster in regenerating it after a loss because of expectation.
Esteban Baez
That's a powerful thing to be able to expect something that's awesome.
Martin, one last thing I want to say about this whole thing. I think we're clear on therapy.
Mentorship relates to choosing someone that has already been there and done it multiple times. It's who they are. So they can definitely transfer the information to you. That's a mentor.
A coach is someone that doesn't necessarily have the personal outcome you're after, but they can somehow guarantee a process that can hold you somewhat to your standard or to your goal so that you can get there. Right?
But they may not have the million dollars. Right? They may not have the Olympic medal, but they can coach you through a process to get you there.
Martin Altherr
Yes. You say it's actually absolutely accurate. It's actually like this.
Let's take the money thing. If you go to a person who was in the bank and knows how to make, let's say 10 K in a year through investing, that's a very low sum. That's not a big deal. That's very easy to achieve, especially if you know how.
So if he knows how and can give you that but your goal is to reach a million, then he can coach you to the 10 K because he knows how to do that, because he does it already.
But he's not yet there at the 1 million that you want to reach. So he is a coach or she is a coach for you for that first step to get there.
A mentor is already there, has lived that already very long, and will not only coach you on how to get to a million, he will also mentor you on how to live your life and how to sort your life into your whole environment and how to live a specific lifestyle to maintain then this million you want to reach.
And that makes a big difference because here it is, the experience needed for your specific goal.
Esteban Baez
Okay, so this brings one more question to my mind. Let's say I have a financial goal, but I hire a coach that works on making sure, let's say I know what I need to do.
Like I know the process, I'm not looking for a mentor, but maybe I'm hiring a coach just to keep me motivated on my path.
Could I hire a coach for that? Just to hold me accountable, to do the thing that I need to be doing?
Martin Altherr
That is absolutely useful.
And it is already in the word you say "accountable", that's ab accountability coach. That's a coach who just is an expert in keeping you accountable for something.
Or you hire a productivity coach who exactly is for that specific area of "productivity" responsible with you and coaches you to stay productive.
Or you hire a coach who knows exactly how are the steps to make an advert, for example, that is your advertisement coach. He doesn't know how to make a million out of it, but he knows how to make it so that it works. So then you take a coach for that.
Esteban Baez
Yes, I got it. So the coach has to know something in the arena that I'm hiring the coach.
They don't have to be the thing that I'm trying to obtain, but they have to know how to get me to be the thing. Does that make sense?
Martin Altherr
Absolutely, that makes sense. And maybe people also start to understand now why there are price differences. If you want to go with a mentor on the path to your goal, then you go a completely different way and you get also completely different knowledge.
So you have a totally different power, which is a totally different value. And this value has, of course, also another counterpart as an investment into yourself.
With a coach, you have a certain, let's say a tiny frame of the whole path. You want him to coach you. And because you know this coach has the results, delivers the results, and brings you really to that point, you know that with certainty.
So you take a lower amount to invest because you get also a smaller piece of value. You don't get the whole picture. You get just this tiny step. So if you're somebody who says, I don't have at the moment, let's say 20 K or 50 K, maybe sometimes also 240 K to go into a mastermind. But you have let's say 3-, 4-, 5 K, and you get twelve sessions from a coach for that.
Then you take that and you take that step, you implement it in your life. And then with that, you generate some revenues and then you buy the next step. And that is tinier baby steps. That works as well.
What I just see in my own experience, I have hired tons of mentors over time. And I have a mentor I started with in the very beginning, over 20 years ago. And she is still my mentor because she actually is where I want to be from the inner concept of myself.
And that is why I have chosen her to stay at my side as my mentor as long she lives because she's important to me.
But in between, I mostly hired actually mentors because I knew for me the value is way higher to get people who are coming from a perspective that has a holistic view and not just a framework view.
And that is why I often hired mentors. Cost me a bit more, but also pushed me way faster.
Esteban Baez
So, you know, this really does explain the difference, between mentorship coaching and also therapy. Thank you so much for that, man.
Now, if you're watching or listening to this podcast, first of all, we want to thank you for tuning in. And Second of all, if you want to find out more information about Martin...
Martin, right now you still coach, mentor and do therapy with people, correct?
Martin Altherr
Actually, it's like this. When somebody comes to me into a mentorship process, which can be a one-year process, which can be also a three-month process, depends on what is the goal to achieve.
Often I observe that it's very powerful for both of us that I'm able to apply one or the other therapist's method to reach the thing faster because I can remove things that are just in the way.
And as a coach, I'm very happy because I went through this area in my life as well as a coach, because then I can really train the person to get the results.
And as a mentor, I can call myself in many life situations. Not in all, but in many life situations I can call myself a mentor because I'm living them already a longer time, and have experienced them already a longer time there.
It is a good thing to give a Holistic view of the whole thing so that they can understand where their potential of healing has to be used to heal, where their potential of coaching has to be coached in order to use the whole mentoring to apply it to their life that they are there where they want to be.
Esteban Baez
So if you are interested in having Martin coach you, mentor you, and maybe do some sessions of therapy, please visit his website. That's martinaltherr.com.
Martin thank you so much for today's podcast. Do you have any final closing statements for our listeners and viewers today?
Martin Altherr
I guess I was talking today very often about I call myself a mentor, I call myself a coach. I call myself a therapist.
That I call myself a therapist, I guess, is very clear why. I started to work with traumatized people, so I had a whole education, medical education, and a few thousand hours on anatomy, physiology, pathology, and psychopathology.
That makes sense... Ok, that's clear too.
Coach? Okay does it for 20 years, it seems I know what I'm doing. And my clients have the results. So that makes sense then as well.
Why mentor? And before I just mentioned, not in all areas of life.
So if you're looking for a guru who brings you to the highest level of spiritual consciousness, I'm not your mentor, but I'm your coach because I've reached certain levels.
And if that level is the level you want to reach, I can coach you to get there.
Moneywise. If you say: "I want to become a multimillionaire and I want to have a mentor for that", I'm not your mentor.
If you say: "I want to build a company", I have built nine companies. I have crashed some of them, and some are still very successful, then I'm your mentor.
Because after building nine companies and making all the mistakes you can do, I can tell you which mistakes you should not do, first of all. And I can mentor you on how to achieve it in a very fast and possible way.
When it comes to building wealth and having money, I can help you up to half a million, because I've reached it and more, and I have lost it as well and reached it again. So I know in this span up to half a million, almost a million, I can help you.
What goes beyond that like becoming a multimillionaire, I'm not your mentor. But if you are at the point in your life, you say: "I want to make the first steps at least to reach like 200, 300,000 in revenues with my company." I am your mentor because I'm living that for years and I experienced that and I know how to get there.
And if you take everything away from me, I will get it back within a year, a maximum of two years, I'm back there.
But not to brag and it's also not to brag what I say here. It's actually... how do they say it always...? "I'm not bragging on you, I'm bragging upon you.
I mean, I want to motivate you to say: "Hey, listen, that is what I'm capable of and that is what I'm not capable of."
And when it comes to relationships, I'm pretty sure I can mentor you. Sometimes in relationships, I realize there are some therapy sessions necessary because often unhealed issues are hindering the mentor and coaching process.
There I can work with the Self Transformation Code, which has the capability to support therapy-, mentoring-, and coaching processes. That's the powerful thing about this method.
So that is what I can and that is what I'm saying. I can give a guarantee because I have given a guarantee to my clients and the client's voices are confirming my guarantees.
That is what I can do. And everything beyond this, you have to look for somebody else.
Esteban Baez
That is very clear. Martin, thank you so much for clarifying that and letting everyone know your area of expertise and how you can really truly be of service to them.
So. Thank you, Martin, and then thank you, guys, so much for tuning in. We do these podcasts frequently. So please stay tuned for the next podcast that we're going to be recording.
And if you did enjoy today's message, please remember to like it subscribe to our channels on social media, and also share it with your friends and family.
And again, thank you so much for tuning in.
Martin Altherr
Sorry for interrupting your wonderful end. I have to say one last thing.
Esteban Baez
Sure.
Martin Altherr
Kindly forgive me...
It is Faith Shifter. Podcast, right? We're talking about shifting your faith and that is something we have just dropped into my mind right now intuitively.
And I have to say that whatever you want to achieve in your life, that is one thing. And there we talked about therapy coach and mentorship.
Actually, we should talk also and maybe we just really take that also in another podcast, we should talk about methods. Because when we look at the self-transformation code, the self-transformation code enables you, wherever you are in your life, whatever you need, if you need a therapist, if you need a coach, or if you need a mentor, it enables you to shift your fate.
And that is actually the powerful thing that I have gotten into my heart. Those who have listened to the other episodes, know already, that was the story that led me to this method.
That is not something I created with my mind, because I'm so genius. That's something I understand as a gift, which is the self-transformation code that really can shift your fate.
And if you are working already with a mentor, if you're working already with a coach, if you're working already, maybe with a therapist, then you can add the self-transformation code to speed up the process.
Because shifting fate is a thing that can happen in a blink of an eye or in the speed of light. And that is what happened to me. That is what happens to my clients. And that is what I want just to let you know, wherever you are in life and you want to shift your fate, then get in touch with us.